Monthly Archives: June 2017

The recent Farmleigh House based project Pieces of Mind was inspired by Georges Perec’s An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris. Following a conversation about this, fabulous Belfast poet Maria McManus sent me a link to her own exciting work … Continue reading →

This blog is usually about the arts but artists are citizens too. The UK election is tomorrow. In Ireland we worry about the Border, no matter how officialdom tries to placate us. Now there’s something else to worry us: Today’s … Continue reading →

Sally Rooney is a phenomenon. She’s very young (26) but we can’t hold that against her. She has talent, energy, a strong sense of the world her generation inhabit and a direct way of talking (and writing) that is instantly … Continue reading →

No one could accuse Elizabeth Strout of being an overnight success. Encouraged by her mother, she started writing as a child. That, she says, got her thinking about sentences. She started sending stories out when she was 16 but her … Continue reading →